The Cruel Tutelage of Vi Mo

In case you don't know, the title is a play on the chapter of Kill Bill Vol. 2 called "The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei". Get it? Vi(cious) Mo(mma). ;-) And if I was a guy and could grow a beard I'd have a long one like his.


Sometimes my methods of enlightenment are a bit too similar to Pai Mei's, but most wise students know that their most difficult teachers are usually the best and most effective. And learning the most valuable lessons should involve some challenge and struggle. One shouldn't expect it to be easy to learn great and powerful things. Wise students should also, instead of getting angry and offended by a tough teacher, be honored and grateful that the teacher is even bothering with them. And you can be certain that a tough teacher has learned that toughness from her own hard lessons and hard teachers.

Well, of course, this is fantasyland, but if I was a Kung Fu expert you can be sure that I'd be just like Pai Mei. I could kick your ass without moving much more than a finger. You wouldn't know what hit you.

Maybe I'm just in an ass-kicking mood and the only way to express it is through these encoded words pounded into the make-believe realm of cyberspace, and since none of that is really real then it shouldn't matter what I say or do. It's all fake and secret (incomprehensible to me) codes anyway, unlike a firm kick to the ass that would leave a very real and unmistakable bruise.

Aeron the Hare

I haven't seen "The Golden Compass" or read the book(s). But Bee had this fun quiz so I had to try it. ;-)

I'm not sure if I'm well matched with Aeron the Hare. But hey, you take what you get, right? ;-) This daemon soul-keeper idea is very similar to shamanic animal spirit guides. Apparently, Aeron is one of 31,748 Hare daemons (so far) in a total daemon population of 853,745.

Dear Quentin Tarantino,

I'm sure you get all kinds of kooky letters from crazy freaks with their 'brilliant' movie ideas. Well, I'm pretty kooky and crazy and maybe a little freaky and I do have a movie idea, but I'm not promising anything brilliant. ;-) Just so you know, I'm a hometown girl from Knoxville, just in case that might help a little. :-) I really love some of your movies that I've seen, especially the Kill Bill movies, Sin City (your influence as guest director is obvious), and Pulp Fiction. I'm sorry to admit that I haven't seen all of them. Maybe someday I'll get caught up on some movie watching.

Anyway, if you sex it up a lot and fictionalize most of it, you could make a really funny and quirky movie based on my life. Just a few of the real elements to start with are my status as a vicious momma who drives a red Corvette convertible (when I'm not driving a bunch of kids around in an 'evil', full size SUV - Ford Expedition). Well, that's kind of a good start, don't you think? ;-) For some of the fantasy elements you could have me involved in torrid affairs with Lubos Motl and the Pope. Okay, just for a disclaimer to make sure no rumors get started I must tell you that in actuality Lubos Motl has only ever shown the utmost impeccable integrity towards me, and of course the Pope doesn't even know me. But let's get back to the fiction. Another plot twist possibility could involve all this global warming garbage and how me and my cohorts form a secret alliance to stop the evil AntiChrist who is leading the world astray, and so on.

Kate Winslet would be the best choice to play me. She's much prettier than I am, but that's how it's supposed to be in movies.



These pictures from Romance and Cigarettes capture some of the vicious momma spirit, I think.

Maybe Jude Law could play Lubos, or even you. I know you like to show up in your movies. And maybe Anthony Hopkins could play the Pope. We could throw in Viggo Mortensen as a mystery man without whose aid we couldn't succeed in our mission. Probably Alec Baldwin would be good as the AntiChrist. I really dislike him anyway. He's a true cad so it might not be too much of a stretch for him to play that part.

So there you go. There are lots of cool music ideas too, but I won't get too carried away. I do think that you would have the vision and humor to create a fun, interesting story with these elements. And maybe you could even ask Michael Crichton to collaborate on some of the scientific aspects of the story. I like his movies too, though they are much different from yours. It might be a very strange but complementary mixture to have you two working together. But maybe you two hate each other and it is a terrible prospect? I have no idea. I'm just throwing around some wild notions.

Have a nice holiday.

Sincerely,
Rae Ann

PS How could I have been so thoughtless? I should have mentioned my best friend's brother, Walt Foreman, who is a novelist and filmmaker in California. I think he might have some good ideas too.

Movie Recommendation

I just watched Madea's Family Reunion, and wow, it was great! It was absolutely loaded with humor, excellent wisdom, and very sweet romance. Very touching and poignant movie, but also laugh-out-loud funny, especially the title character, Madea. She's a great example of a hilarious vicious momma. ;-) If you get a chance to watch it you won't regret it. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Where the Streets Have No Name

Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future

Fly Like An Eagle by Steve Miller Band

It's never been a big secret that I am somewhat certifiably insane. I'm not ashamed in the same way that anyone with any other chronic condition should not be ashamed. Is Stephen Hawking ashamed of his condition? I don't know. I doubt it because he, like me, probably realizes that shame is a total waste of valuable mental energy. Some people might not like that comparison of Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS) with mental illness, but in reality both are chronic conditions that affect the nerves and brain. And even with treatment, those with mental illness are never really "cured" just like they still have no cure for ALS. I find it a bit concerning that some illnesses gain a celebrity importance while others that are more prevalent and just as dangerous are left in the shadows, or where the streets have no name.

I could continue my rant about the history of mistreatment of mental illnesses and the continuing social disinterest and stigmas, but I'm not really up to giving a good enough rant at the moment. I've got some mental "house cleaning" to do.

It's been painfully apparent to me from my earliest social memories that I've not been like the "typical" females. Maybe it was an early sign of my later problems. I don't believe that it is a social conditioning problem. It must surely be some inherent, genetic trait. My sister is very much a "typical" female. We were raised in the same conditions so it doesn't follow that upbringing had anything to do with it. Incidentally, although we love each other very much, we do acknowledge that we are completely different and not always compatible. This has got to be because of my inability to "understand" typical female behaviors and thinking. Maybe it's a type of autism? ;-) After all, nowadays they say 1 in 166 kids are autistic, so why wouldn't that apply to adults too? (I don't "believe" in most of the new "epidemics" because the numbers of certain conditions aren't actually increasing. The rate of recognition and diagnosis is increasing.)

Well, anyway, there is one particular type of female that I've never been able to tolerate. That is the catty woman. (More modernly known as the female 'bully') My own definition of a catty woman is a woman who insults and picks on other women in ways that mostly only other women recognize. As you can read in some of the articles linked above, female bullies are often charming and clever so that they disguise their true natures, especially to males because they are so easily fooled by women. ;-) Well, I would consider it a somewhat "typical" female trait to consciously try to make oneself look better than she really is (especially to males). I think it is fair to say that one reason men aren't as perceptive of many female tactics is because their corpus callosum (not to be confused with Corpus Spongiosum or Cavernosum) are smaller which limits their ability to process social interactions.





Hey, maybe my corpus callosum is too small and that's why I have trouble with some women? I guess they don't make a magic pill for that since I don't ever get any spam emails offering some wonder drug or herbal supplement to "increase your corpus callosum by three inches!" If you ask me, that might be more beneficial to the world than a pill meant to increase the "corpus spongiosum (or cavernosum)" by three inches. ;-)

Where was I? It's hard to find your way when the streets have no name. (lol, yeah, that was pretty lame)

No really, what was I going to say? Was I finished about the catty women? I'm not sure, but I'll move along anyway. I am capable of engaging in catty behavior in response to someone being catty to me. Sometimes that is enough to stop them, but when it's not I'll just fight like a man. Life is too short to waste time verbally sparring with some catty bitch when really all it takes to shut her up is to "manhandle" her. Anyone of any gender who's ever been bullied knows that the only effective way of stopping a bully is to beat the crap out of them. That way you've taken all their power away. It might not be pretty, but if it works it's okay. And really, any bully who's dumb enough to pick another fight with someone who's beat them really needs to be beat again. ;-)

I'm aware that some people find this attitude distasteful and uncouth and offensive. Fine. Whatever works for you. But I'm betting that my approach is more effective. Oh, I just thought of something. You could compare female bully behavior to those who demand "political correctness" and other such totalitarian things. The "consensus" on global warming uses the same tactics as female bullies to try to discredit anyone who questions them. Maybe that will make it more understandable to men if I give examples like that. I would say, what's the difference in people doing that to each other's groups and individuals doing it to each other? It's all the same with the same end results. So it's despicable behavior regardless of how many people are involved.

Oh, yeah, and to some men, when a woman fights back like a man, they will mistakenly think that she is the bully and not the other one. They are the easily fooled and charmed guys with a really tiny corpus callosum. ;-) (As far as I know there is no correlation between callosum size and spongiosum/cavernosum size.)

You know, I really need to stop bringing up the spongiosum/cavernosum because it keeps making me lose my thoughts. ;-)

By the way, I'm fairly certain that perimenopause has begun and it feels exactly like being a teenager again. It's just like adolescence except in the other direction. Anyone who remembers a difficult adolescence should empathize.

I'm pretty sure I had more to say, but I'm getting hungry. Since my appetite has been bad lately I should eat. (was trying to think of some funny joke about sponge cake but ???)


Addendum: Very strange. Today must be "crazy movie day" on the cable movie channels. First I saw "Mad Love" (1995) with Drew Barrymore and then "Proof" (2005) with Gwyneth Paltrow. I hadn't seen either of them before and enjoyed both. "Proof" was especially interesting and it "hit home" in some non-trivial ways. One thing was that the sisters' relationship reflected much of what I wrote above about "typical" women and not "typical" ones. (Paltrow's sister character was the "typical" one.) But of course, no mathematical proofs are involved in my own personal issues, though if I had to pick something to try to prove it would be that God does exist. ;-)

The Great Global Warming Swindle

Please see Lubos Motl's post on this for a more detailed analysis of this documentary.


This is a must-see for everyone: all skeptics of global warming as well as true believers, as long as they can set aside their preconceived notions and objectively view the real facts. This is an eye-opening film for those whose only information on the imaginary "planetary emergency" comes from the AntiChrist himself and his lie-filled and erroneously titled piece of garbage, "An Inconvenient Truth." And the US TV networks really need to pick this up and broadcast it.

Update: The film now has its own domain.

If you are interested in real science and real truth please watch this 1.25 hour film:

The Woman of His Dreams

My best friend's brother is an aspiring film-maker in LA. He has a short film in a contest for a Dreamworks mentorship. The more views and good reviews it gets the better his chances. Please take 5 minutes of you time to view it. I just watched it, and I think it is absolutely stunning - visually and pacing and all those other qualities that make good films. You can sign up to post a review, but it isn't necessary to sign up to view his or the other films.

Please watch it and help Walt in pursuing his film-making dreams:

The Woman of His Dreams by Walt Foreman (click it!)


You won't regret it! Thanks!

Best Chick Flicks Ever

I just watched Kill Bill Vol. One the other night. And I have to say that it is my kind of 'chick flick', maybe even the best chick flick ever. I have no use for the typical 'chick flicks' because real life is emotional and challenging enough that I don't need to get caught up in some sappy shit in a movie. If I'm going to watch a fantasy about how to deal with life's problems it's a better investment in my time to watch something completely fantastic and outrageous like the Kill Bill movies. I had seen Kill Bill 2 when it came out and liked it a lot, and I just watched it again. While I really like both movies quite a lot, I think I do like Vol. 1 better.

My favorite scene in Vol. 1 is the boardroom scene when O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu) assumes her position as the top boss of the Tokyo underworld (mafia). One of the older male under-bosses (Tanaka) is openly and strongly resentful that she is not 'pure' Japanese but is part Chinese and part American (and a woman). After allowing him to express his disrespect and dissatisfaction O-Ren demonstrates her position:

O-Ren Ishii: [after she cuts off Tanaka's head, in Japanese] So you all will know how serious I am, I shall say this in English.

O-Ren Ishii: [in English] As your leader, I encourage you from time to time, and always in a respectful manner, to question my logic. If you're unconvinced that a particular plan of action I've decided is the wisest, tell me so, but allow me to convince you, and I promise you right here and now, no subject will ever be taboo. Except, of course, the subject that was just under discussion. The price you pay for bringing up either my Chinese or American heritage as a negative is I collect your fucking head.

Just like this fucker here. [holds up Tanaka's head]

Now, if any of you sons of bitches got anything else to say, now's the fucking time!
[pause and silence]

O-Ren Ishii: I didn't think so.

O-Ren Ishii: [calmly, in Japanese] Gentlemen, this meeting is adjourned.

Where can I get me one of those personal armies of assassins? ;-) Seriously though, what I especially love about these Kill Bill movies is that the main character (The Bride) is what could be described as the Ultimate Vicious Momma. The revenge she sought throughout the two films was primarily motivated by her Maternal Instincts. Sure, there were some other 'minor' revenges along the way (like with rapist "Buck") that were purely personal and not related to the loss of her daughter. But the big list is all for taking away her daughter, even more so than their trying to kill her. If she'd been through the experience but had never been pregnant she might have still felt compelled to take revenge, but she wouldn't have had the same strength of purpose to actually succeed.

Another aspect of the characters that I really liked was that they, for the most part, recognized and accepted that The Bride was justified in her revenge. They knew that they did her wrong and that it was entirely fair for her to try to repay them. I guess that's part of the 'honor of bandits' or whatever. Not that their acceptance of her revenge meant they weren't going to fight against it. But they knew they 'had it (a fight) coming to them.' These characters were professional assassins (or 'warriors') who understood the reality and philosophy of war, which says that you are allowed, and probably even expected, to retaliate against someone who has wronged you. You have that right to seek revenge, but don't expect it to be easy.*

I rarely get to see movies when they first come out so all of this is probably old news to most people. But I was pretty impressed with the movies and wanted to note it anyway.


*This idea isn't really so different from the "certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" of the Declaration of Independence.